Our sweet oldest daughter was born in Bulgaria in 1998.
For nearly fifteen years, the very basic necessities of life were stolen from her.
Arms to love her.
Medical intervention to ease the pain and discomfort from many special needs (cerebral palsy, scoliosis, bilateral hip dysplasia, rotten, overcrowded teeth, osteoporosis, bone fractures, severe malnutrition, severe contractures, etc).
The locust came and stole from her the things that so many of us take for granted as we raise our own children.
Food to nourish.
Words of love and affirmation.
Touch.
Someone to believe in her ability to blossom and grow into a beautiful young woman–no matter what that looked like.
This photo was taken when my daughter was ten years old.
The first pictures we ever saw of this beautiful child was when she was fourteen years old. Our journey began here.
She weighed a measly fourteen pounds.
Anthony and I could not fathom how in the world she would be able to hang on.
How would she survive the long adoption process that is filled with endless paperwork and ridiculous red tape?
We knew just one thing so deep down in our hearts as we began the process to bring her home…
…our God in heaven was able to do exceedingly, abundantly MORE than we could ever hope or imagine in her life.
We knew that the Father to the fatherless, the Great I Am, the One True God had not forsaken this tiny one.
Though she languished for so many years…
…He was near.
He named her “Hasya,” a Hebrew word meaning to “have mercy.”
I met Hasya in August 2012.
Painfully fragile, completely stressed out from being taken out of the only environment she had ever known–the safety of her crib–she was an absolute mess.
I held my filthy, dirty, smelly, neglected daughter in my arms that day and prayed with all my heart that the Lord would continue to hold her tightly until I could return to take her home a few months later.
She weighed nineteen pounds and was fast approaching her fifteenth birthday.
By the grace of the Living God, Hasya survived the long flights home.
When we arrived at our home she was dangerously dehydrated, starving, stressed from being held for so many hours (her emaciated body could not handle being touched) and literally unable to cope with the upheaval she had just endured.
It was all too much and she started giving up.
One day after arriving home, Hasya’s body began to shut down and she was immediately admitted to the nearest children’s hospital.
She weighed 22 pounds that day–just three weeks before her fifteenth birthday.
And so began the long road to her healing.
Seventeen glorious, God-inspired months have passed since Hasya has been home.
She has astounded us.
She has left us speechless.
Her growth and development have been nothing short of miraculous.
And recently our little darling reached a huge milestone…
HASYA HAS DOUBLED IN WEIGHT!
She is 44 pounds and vibrantly healthy.
God has truly redeemed what the locust has eaten.
All things in her life are being made brand new, and she is a new creation in every sense.
Hasya is joy indescribable.
No words can express what an absolute joy it is to watch Hasya’s miracle unfold on a daily basis. To think that God would choose us to be a part of her life, her healing just brings me to my knees. We are so grateful for this treasure that we have on earth, but store up in heaven.
I know that many of you will want to know exactly what we feed Hasya. I’ll share that as a separate post soon.
